Bloody Grave: A Vampire RP. Sign up and OOC thread

[Azrael]

@Terrabrand
One question. Since the Church's actual doctrine and such varies, what should we assume its like in Seafang, as some of us are natives and would probably know?

 

[Terrabrand]

Also, another question: do Angels/Templars/Hunters distinguish between "benign" Vampires and dangerous vampires, or do they just stake them all and let God sort it out?

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They distinguish to the extent that they spend greater efforts to hunt down those causing more immediate damage, but official Church policy is Destroy All Undead. There is no allowance for benign Vampires, save to the extent that they generally send larger and more elite forces after things like 'man found dead' or 'feared Vampire sighted' than 'i dunno some people are anemic I guess?' or 'somebody in that village is kinda pale' as reports go.

@Terrabrand
One question. Since the Church's actual doctrine and such varies, what should we assume its like in Seafang, as some of us are natives and would probably know?

Click to shrink...

I'm not going to set any kind of hard line here at this juncture- I'm broadly running with the idea that this is a northerly, european sort of region of island port, with a church in line with that, but if anyone defines anything particular about the Church's exact practices I'm likely to run with it as long as people don't all give me a bunch of stuff that is collectively contradictory.

Off the cuff though, I'll say something like...

Locals probably attend sermons or something weekly but it's definitely not legally mandated, most sailors are probably more prone to making offerings to probably not-actually-real sea spirit and what have you and other naval superstitions than to being pious, and the city is run more by mercantile interests than the Church. While the Church has enough of a foothold on the culture that reasonable proof of Unholy stuff likely provokes physical investigations, the day to day running of the city is probably done by some kind of formal council of merchants who probably pass plenty of policies that are not in violation of the Unholy ban but still inconvenience Church efforts due to prioritizing shipping and brisk business over making absolutely sure no undead are around

... As my default assumption.

 

[Another Amoeba]

Here's another Vampire on the wrong side of the law. I actually had to make him a bit more of a higher-up in the hopes of not having my character be Miriette-but-male.

Name: Hugo "King 'o The Docks" Parisant

Gender: Male

Age: 32

Mental Description: Hugo was not his father's favorite child. That honor went to his younger brother, Lucas. That boy had a head for facts and figures, logistics and returns on investment and all the things that could grow the family business. Hugo lacked the brain of an administrator, but he made the perfect lackey. He was never terribly concerned with morality and justice. However, in a strange and twisted way, he's a very selfless person. He wanted what was best for his family, without exception. Uncharitably, he was small-minded or provincial, but it would be more accurate to say he had found his niche, just like anything else inhabiting this island, as his family's favorite hatchetman. In Seafang's tumultuous underworld ecosystem and cutthroat dockyard politics, that meant he was no fool.

Physical Description: In life, Hugo was always well-maintained, like a good house. His clothes were never much more expensive than those of the people around him, but they always looked new, not patched up with rags. Keeping his hair neatly cut and beard trimmed short made him perpetually presentable. He was muscular and well-built, but with the distinctive uniformity of someone who got it through training and not labor.

History: Hugo's a fixer. As soon as he could walk, he was running errands for his old man, the Parisant, heir apparent to Seafang's largest smuggling ring, half its taverns, and the Fishmongers' Guild. In those early years, it seemed obvious that Hugo would inherit the mighty little empire from his father in turn, but he had no head for management. No, that was all Lucas. His younger brother was conniving, even brilliant, Hugo, the natural lieutenant. He kept himself approachable. Any of his family members could come to him with a problem and he'd know the person who could handle it, or he'd shrug and say, "I'll do that one myself." He always got things done: twisting the right arms, finding blackmail, spooking someone with a few break-ins, disposing of evidence, hiring new muscle, etcetera. For most of his life, he was a very visible symbol of his family's power, smiling as he walked down the docks, shaking the guards' hands then turning about to remind debtors they'd missed payments. Not that it matters much, though, when they all got rounded up then bled dry by two Vampires in a power struggle.

He wouldn't be surprised if Lucas slipped his chains and escaped the slaughter, but the rest of the family is surely dead, except maybe his sister. Her name was Luna, but no one would ever give her the honor of being named in Seafang. She ran off to join the 'good guys,' law enforcement or the Church. Only good thing she ever did was swear on her soul not to give the family away when Hugo caught her on that ship. It seems she upheld that promise, which is good, because Hugo's not sure he could bring himself avenge the family on her.

Mundane Skills: Hugo can kill people, both in the sense that he's comfortable with the concept and that he's skilled with weapons. He'll default to the sword, but knows his way around daggers, clubs, bows, and plain old fists. His largest blind spot here is truly military weapons, like polearms or lances. He's not just a bruiser, however. He's quiet and acrobatic enough to make a good thief. Locks have never been much of a problem. If he can't pick them, he'll find another way in. If there isn't one, his family had enough connections the break-in would remain forever unsolved. He'd make a fine investigator if he was on the good guys' side, with his keen pair of eyes and way of knowing both what people want and what they can do for him.

Unholy Power: Escapist's Mist-- One morning, Hugo woke up bound in chains in some great room. He could see, here and there, friends and family scattered about the room. And then a tall, pale man walked up to him and took a bite out of his neck. When he came to, the place was trashed and anyone who might have freed him was dead. Hugo had nothing he could use to pick the locks. The chains were anchored too deep into the wall. He was trapped, and struggled until one arm just popped out. After a few moments of struggle, the other armed followed, then his legs.

The Escapist's Mist is a semi-instinctual power which Hugo can use to turn to mist and flee. When he is in danger, trapped, or otherwise restrained, all or part of him can turn into a form of Vampiric mist Hugo can use to escape. It is extremely difficult to restrict his use of this power, even with Holy magic, but it is likewise impossible for Hugo to use the Mist unless he needs to escape or feels he is in great danger. Even then, it's not entirely a conscious choice but almost a more animalistic expression of his desire to flee. This can make escaping easy, but also very dangerous, as the longer Hugo sustains this power the faster he exhausts himself.

Spoiler: Gear

• Runic Longsword x1
• Rapier
• Crossbow
  • 5 Flame Bolts
  • 10 Hypervelocity Bolts
  • 15 Death Bolts
• Knife
• Jar of Soul Stuff

 

[Floom]

Name: Gunther O'Dimm
Gender: Male
Age: 54
Mental Description: Gunther O'Dimm is a sharp man, a mind honed over years of medical practice. He is quick to break down his situation and thoughts, picking them apart to pieces and attempting to either draw conclusions or determine what more needs to be known. Yet the years have only shown him that there is much that he does not know, a fact that has worn him down to a degree of cynicism that is inappropriate to anyone of the medical arts. Yet he no longer gives a damn anymore. These two facets combine to create a man who has seemingly little concern for others, despite his former profession. Yet it is merely the acknowledgment of an incompetence that he realizes that he can no longer fix.
Physical Description: A man who very much shows his age, Gunther O'Dimm is a tall old man, whose stature is worn, but not yet stooped by his years. A rough and ruffled grey head of hair with an equally scruffy grey beard gives him a slightly deranged air, combined with his stern and serious expression. He dresses less like a doctor and more like a back alley butcher, often seen wearing an apron and gloves underneath simple brown clothes that cover the bodies of most of the working poor of the city, the one difference being that his outfit is conspicuously clean.
History: Gunther grew up a poor but bright child in a small village, fortunate enough to become an apprentice to a Church Healer, despite lacking any skill at the Holy Arts, for the Church is always in need of hands capable of healing, be it through magic or plain medicine. His apprenticeship took him through many places, and taught him the many techniques and teachings that the Church had accrued on the mending of his fellow man. Yet he found himself... unsatisfied at some of the Church's accounts of medicine. What he was taught and what he saw in his work began to contradict, and far too often he found patients dying despite his own treatments, only to be saved at the last minute by Holy Miracles. And over time, he saw many who were not nearly so fortunate. He searched the depths of medical knowledge for answers, and found only the Church's platitudes and miracles of magic. And so he took it upon himself to learn. Why did so many die without the aid of magic? How could more lives be saved? And with that, his path was set.

Much research was conducted, patients observed and meticulously recorded, his fellow healers unable to perform holy rites interviewed, and bodies counted and in secret, dissected should they be bound for a shallow mass grave. He developed methods, tested them thoroughly, and in the end...

He was excommunicated, and barred from practice. Nearly burned at the stake had his long years of service not garnered some form gratitude from the Church.

And so here his path led him, to a run down residence in the poorest parts of Seafang, a back-alley healer for those without healing, or those in need of substances. His books, painstakingly re-written from memory. His equipment, slowly cobbled and crafted himself.

And one night, an old and bitter man dies. And something similar arises in his place.

Mundane Skills:
-Medicine: Gunther was once a Church Healer, trained in all the mundane methods of treating disease. He has furthered this knowledge to unknown and untried heights, and is thus extremely skilled in both the practice and creation of medicine and anatomy.
-Church Educated: Gunther was once a man of the faith for many years, and he still remembers much of the Church's teachings, scriptures, and structure, as bitter as the memories now are.
-Elemental Magic:
--Spark: A brief word, and whatever the caster is touching is set alight. Useful for starting fires to boil water.
--Cauterize: An intense and brief flame produced from the caster's hand that sears a touched wound shut with but a word, refined into a form that is capable of burning away dead flesh, but sparing living tissue.
--Bloodflow: One of the spells whose resemblance to unholy magic eventually got him excommunicated, painstakingly recreated from Gunther's burned books. Blood is but another form of water, and to live, it must flow through the flesh. This spell manipulates the blood within an open wound, preventing it from leaving the normal flow of the body so long as the caster maintains contact with the patient with but a gesture and a word.
--Cleanse: Another spell capable of manipulating disturbing fluids, with but a word, all liquids and stains on a surface or within an area around the size of a small room to become fluid and flow to another point of the casters choosing within a small area around them. While this cannot manipulate fluids within a living creature, the Church nonetheless found it far too disturbing for it's taste, despite being entirely harmless.

Unholy Power:
Forget - With either a gaze into a person's eyes or a touch, Gunther may cause a target to either forget recent memories that he specifies, or to suppress long-term memories for a period of 5 minutes. Use of this ability puts the target into an unthinking stupor so long as Gunther maintains his gaze or touch, and the victim will not remember Gunther using this power on them. Memories are only recent up until the target has slept, at which point they are either forgotten or become long-term memories.

 

[Azrael]

Vampire Nun? Vampire Nun.


Name: Catherine Acker.
Gender: Female.
Age: 20.
Mental Description: Catherine is a kind, caring individual who cares deeply about her family, her friends, and the people of her town. While by no means a saint, years spent around younger siblings and belligerent sailors have tempered her patience, while at the same time instilling a stern side that brooks no argument. While perhaps a bit more skeptical than her kin, she has had certain superstitions and traditions ingrained in her since her youth, and will on occasion make utterances towards the spirit of the sea rather than any God.

Physical Description:

Spoiler: Image

History: Catherine Acker, the third child of Paul and Anne Acker, is Seafang folk born and bred. Not always a bustling port city, Seafang has nevertheless always depended on the ocean as it grew from small fishing hamlet to local metropolis, and Catherine's family have been there to see it all.

Not that they have much in the way of detailed accounts of history, certainly not written ones. Merely old boats passed from sailor father to sailor son, alongside oral tales of past disasters, windfalls, and the occasional heroic ancestor, though no one really believes that great great great grandmother killed a giant sea serpent with a harpoon.

While some of the family took to the sea to travel to far places as crew aboard mighty trading ships, Catherine grew up helping her father to gut fish he caught out in the bay in his much less impressive craft.

An honest, simple life. Like her mother and her grandmother before her, Catherine expected to find love among the sea folk in the docks, get married, and have children to pass down improbable tales of old to. Then, the accident happened.

When she was 16, a harsh storm hit the city. Straining under gale and wave, parts of the dock collapsed and took with it a dozen people, including her father. As she watched from further back, held by her mother and helpless to do anything, she was sure they were dead.

And they would have been, if not for the priests who arrived from the Church. Mangled bodies were mended, men resuscitated from nearly drowning, and her father's leg effectively reattached. Ever since then, Catherine has harbored admiration and a greater sense of piety towards the Church, eventually going so far as to abandon her past vision of her future in order to knock on their door and ask to join.

It was difficult. Her family didn't exactly approve of her decision, but she would not be deterred. She became an aid and acolyte, taught many things and undergoing physical and mental training to attain the discipline sought after in one granted Holy might.

Things were going well, until she went on brief leave to visit her family home and was taken before she could return.

Mundane Skills: The daughter of a fisherman, taught in her youth to be a fisherman's wife. Catherine retains a working understanding of such matters as mending clothes, nets, and sails, of salting and drying fish, and to a certain extent from listening to her father how to operate small boats, read the weather, and navigate.

She knows how to read and write, and simple calculations. Her time in the Church has also left her with some experience going through records and data managing the circuit of Priests and the stockpile of reagents, though matters of Hunters and Necromancer hunts came to her only as rumours or overheard whispers. More often she mopped the floor.

In terms of Elemental Magic, Catherine knows a few home-maker spells passed down in her family and the greater community. How to make a bit of drinkable water, how to leech the moisture from fish, how to light a stove, and such trifles as that.

Unholy Power: Unholy Restoration. While anyone knows that Vampires can steal the lifeblood of others to regenerate from even dire wounds and fuel their cursed unlife, and those more privileged are aware that the foul arts of Necromancy can be used to repair damaged Undead, what is far less common is the idea of a Vampire giving up their store of blood in order to regenerate others.

Such is exactly what this power allows Catherine to do. Not only can she, through the expenditure of blood, heal the wounds of other Vampires, she can also use it in place of Soulstuff to reconstitute the forms of created Undead such as Zombies. This does not require direct contact, but has a limit of about 10 feet for its effects, streams of vaporous black ichor linking Catherine to her 'patient'.

As the pace of this recovery is tuned to Catherine's natural regeneration, it is possible that her subject might be able to more rapidly recover on their own. Further development would increase her own efficiency, but at the very least it serves a valuable use in allowing a more frontline combatant to spare their own blood to use on defensive or offensive abilities rather than recovery.

Equipment: An enchanted halberd, an enchanted sword, a dagger, a bottle of preserved blood. Three 'Death Globes'. Patchwork armor from the zombies.

 

[Terrabrand]

*cracks knuckles, reads sheets*

Name: Miriette "The Hammer" Oakbender

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No obvious issues. Threadmarking as a candidate, though I'm not committing in advance to whether or not to take any given character until things are ready to go and I'm looking at whatever final spread there is.

Name: Sean Nielsen

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Threadmarked as a candidate. However, I would like more of a description than;

Physical Description: A scholarly life had left Sean a bit pale even before being turned. He is also somewhat smaller than average. Due to his travels, he wears well-made, sturdy clothes, including thick boots and a warm cloak.

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Like, physically all you've given me is 'he's a small guy'. There's no hair color, eye color, hair length, build, how people are likely to take him, etc. I'm not demanding a clear sketch, but I'd like a few more physical features to be able to reference than 'male, small' as needed.

Other than that, no obvious issues.

Name: Hugo "King 'o The Docks" Parisant

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Threadmarked as a candidate character. I do wonder if this;

Not that it matters much, though, when the Parisant empire got torn down by two Vampires who weren't even trying to hurt it. The entire underworld was reduced to so many chess pieces they could use to strike at one another. Hugo was locked up at the start of it, and couldn't free himself until it was very nearly over.

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is meant to tie directly into the OP? Like, in case the initial description wasn't clear enough the general progression was 'lots of people kidnapped over a short period, brought to underground necromancer's lab, Vampire Necromancer winds up killing his apprentice by lethal turning only for the guy to turn, Vampires kill each other in the very room while several other people survive their own lethal feeding becoming Turned Vampires themselves, RP start in the underground room with whoever all I accept and go from there'.

You can absolutely have the criminal empire torn about by a shadow war between Vampires, but it's feeling probable enough that it's meant to connect to the OP that I'm questioning if I was clear and so noting it.

Name: Gunther O'Dimm

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Threadmarked as a candidate. I keep going back and forth on how well it fits to my general conception of the Church an how it connects to medical practice but on the whole I think it fits well enough. As one detail though I have to ask about;

Forget - With either a gaze into a person's eyes or a touch, Gunther may cause a target to either forget recent memories that he specifies, or to suppress long-term memories for a period of 5 minutes.

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For clarity, I'm guessing you mean 'can suppress the development of long term memories' such that they'll fail to remember what happens next, but could use some clarification on what you meant to be sure.

Name: Catherine Acker.

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Threadmarked as a candidate. No obvious problems, but I repeat my prior statement that I'm not making final judgements until it's time to throw up the in character thread.

Which, with how many people have expressed interest and indicated they'll try to get to it in a few days, is something I'm not gonna do for at least three to four days, probably longer. I'll make the exact decision there later but do want to give at least enough time for those who have already expressed interest to have a reasonable shot at putting up a submission.

 

[Terrabrand]

On the wider state of the Holy and Unholy

I've talked some in the setting details in general, but I've not really gone into details on the general Church VS The Forces Of Darkness dynamics and how this relates to geopolitics etc.

in general, the Church has a political non intervention policy as long as nothing Holy or Unholy is involved. In most parts of the world, the Church winds up deeply entrenched as a powerful organization and essential part of the community. Even if you don't believe in God, the Church is defacto the community hospital in most cities and towns, provides protection from the dangers of any Vampires or nefarious Necromancers who would consider your home easy pickings, and pulls in disaster relief from the wider body of the Church in the aftermath of natural disasters and so forth- large wild fires and tsunamis and earthquakes and so on. While Hunters tend to be functionally nomadic, redeploying at request as the Church judges necessary, going wherever their particular strengths and talents are needed, a majority of people in service to your local Church are in fact locals, born and raised, quite often from families that lived in that town for several generations. They shop and gossip and make friends and such like, as people tend to do.

Few nations seek to actively reject the Church in the face of the combined carrot of disaster relief, medical aid, and so on, and the stick of political annihilation if in fact the nation openly embraces Necromancy or Vampires. Some nations are less eager to actually embrace the Church, and so in some places the Church is closer to weird outsiders at the edge of the community who are nevertheless tolerated, just not strongly central. Though the Church has been spread over most of the world since time immemorial, there are cases reluctant to accept what is to them still viewed as an outside tradition, but to choose conflict with the Church is rarer still, and to survive such war even rarer.

The Church does enforce international standards of war crimes and so forth, and does in fact excommunicate nations that cross the line too far. The priority focus is Unholy powers, but there are other atrocious behaviors that are deemed a step too far to remain neutral on. Perhaps surprisingly, the Church does not enforce a central doctrine or religion- Angels state unambigiously that they are Angels, that God sent them from Heaven, and that God is real and Heaven is where the souls of the dead go, but do not actually set down the details of spiritual and religious traditions, and so local standards of worship, the actual physical structure if any and even name of the place of worship varies, and while plenty of overlap exists, you can find fairly divergent fine beliefs about acceptable food, manner of wear, method of prayer, organization of spiritual leaders, and so on. In some regions spiritual leaders are not even actually connected to the Church organizationally.

When two nations come to blows over resources or succession lines or territory disputes or what have you, while the Church does tend to try to counsel for peaceful resolutions and offer its services as neutral ground, unless rogue Hunters or the like or actual Unholy powers are involved, the Church refuses to actually take a side in such disputes and thus wars do occur. In such cases Church forces will prowl around and hunt for Necromancers and Vampires as usual, and still offer healing at the Church facilities and so forth, but will, ultimately, stand aside as armies march to war. This is somewhat rarer than in our world, but you still do see open civil wars and such like.

Mundane warfare varies by region, but ultimately involves variations on what one might expect from historical militaries of such time periods as from 1000-2000 years ago in our own world. The world is not technologically or doctrinally unified. There is of course the obvious addition of Elemental magic to warfare, adding various complications such as individual soldiers that are de facto siege weapons due to their magical knowledge, as well as crossbow like assault via simpler spells. Likewise, simple forts may be erected by specially trained wizards, and weather control magic can twist the skies over battlefields, or geomantic spells can allow tunneling under the ground and so forth. The other notable deviation is a lack of gunpowder weaponry- Fangs in the Night's China equivalent never had fireworks in military use, for example, nevermind any possible presence of guns.

A great deal of the Church's resources as an organization are sunk into fighting what few openly Unholy kingdoms and nations exist. The most famous by far is the Kingdom of Twilight, a vast nation on a continent across the sea from the rough Europe equivalent (I was serious about the 'default like earth' assumption, you want a fantasy expy of a real nation that's broadly fine) ruled at the top by four Liches; The Unsmote Shadow, who has credible claim to being the single greatest Necromancer in the world and is the formal king of the kingdom, General Eclipse, a rare example of a warrior Lich with few peers and no small amount of magical knowledge himself, even if he specializes in physical combat, the Maelstrom Admiral, once a feared pirate queen in life, but joined the kingdom after bringing herself to Lichdom and striking a deal to run the naval operations of the Kingdom in exchange for a safe base of operations, and a Lich known only as Old Smith, a master smith who personally creates objects of terrible Unholy power for the soldiers of the Kingdom. Naturally, the Kingdom of Twilight employs necromancy and Vampires in abundance, and has been forced to develop proper disease control, sanitation, and medicine, due to lacking Holy power aid.

Other nations exist that openly embrace the Unholy, but they are typically smaller and shorter lived than the multi millenia history of the Kingdom of Twilight. Any similarly ancient Unholy power has neglected to make open, permanent claims to any particular region, operating either nomadically or as a shadow power behind the throne in regions that on paper reject the Unholy.

Most Vampires are ultimately trying to keep their heads down if they survive for any real time, choosing to live in regions they expect to be able to survive in discreetly, and either brokering backroom deals with criminal organizations or local nobility or such like to trade use of their vampiric might for discreet access to blood and hiding places, or else simply skulking in the shadows, hiding in caves or forests or lurking in back alleys or what have you to avoid Hunter notice.

But most of those any normal joe average fella has heard about who are more active and ambitious, and quite often malevolent. Since a Vampire can grow their physical abilities potentially indefinitely, has potentially eternity to hone skills, and can develop all sorts of incredible powers, and since a Vampire needs no form of rest whatsoever if well fed on blood, and can even regenerate from any normal injury that fails to kill them with some time and at the cost of blood, it becomes possible for a single Vampire to become a one man army. Combine with the potential to use vampiric Thralls as foot soldiers, or simply learn Necromancy oneself and raise legions of the dead, and you see a meaningful enough portion of Vampires seek to conquer or slaughter their way to infamy and power. And it only takes one Vampire who fights smart or lucky enough for you to, at least temporarily, see them terrorize whole regions.

Necromancers trend significantly more malevolent. While individual Necromancers may have noble intent, the intersection of cultural fear and hatred of the art and the Church's formal ban on the practice mean the main types who actually wind up becoming Necromancers desire to either live forever at any cost, or else to conquer the world (or at least their homeland). Although living Necromancers still must sleep, Necromancers almost invariably seek either the power of Lichdom, or 'settle' for more accessibly turning themselves into Selfmade Vampires. Even with the need to sleep, a Necromancer possesses theoretically unlimited military power as soon as they learn to harvest soulstuff and raise the dead. Any Necromancer can exercise loose control over an unlimited number of undead minions provided they have the supplies in Soulstuff and preferably corpses, and of course they can turn their fellow humans into a supply of both. Seeing as how their undead minions still function as they sleep, and can be used to supply the necessary labor to keep them fed and sheltered, while Necromancers usually prefer to be discreet if only to avoid Church retribution until they, if their plans go well, achieve Lichdom, any city can potentially erupt into a tide of death if a Necromancer has managed to learn deep enough into the Necromantic arts unnoticed, as stealing Soulstuff is near instant and raising the dead requires neither gesture nor words; a single Necromancer can in fact simply cast their eyes over a battlefield and exert their will to raise every corpse they see provided they have the Soulstuff.

And such corpses are reusable with a fresh injection of Soulstuff. This, naturally, makes about anyone not practicing the magic themself quite concerned if anyone they know is revealed to practice such magic or show signs they might. Which also tends to make people interested in cadaver related experiments of any sort face severe suspicion.

Many Vampires do, eventually, learn Necromancy, even if they don't all prefer to use it, since they have the time and intuitively know how to gather Soulstuff, and they can hardly get more on the Church's hit-list than they already are, but compared to human Necromancers they are more likely to be disinterested in specifically committing mass murder to gather materials, instead using what is available incidentally to get themselves out of a bad spot.

Feel free to ask questions or incorporate this info into adjustments to your ideas or whatever.

 

[always_confused]

So in the rough 'default like Earth' picture, where would Seafang be? Not-Venice? Generally speaking, how big is the Church's presence in the city and Island as a whole?

EDIT: In regards to our more mundane skills, how skilled are you allowing us to be in that regard, at the start? And can we learn more mundane skills and improve on them as the game goes on?

 

[Floom]

Apologies for the vague wording, I meant that he can make someone forget a long-term memory, e.g making someone forget their mother's name for 5 minutes.

I used the word suppress because it's temporary, and thus not really "forgetting" per se.

 

[Another Amoeba]

is meant to tie directly into the OP? Like, in case the initial description wasn't clear enough the general progression was 'lots of people kidnapped over a short period, brought to underground necromancer's lab, Vampire Necromancer winds up killing his apprentice by lethal turning only for the guy to turn, Vampires kill each other in the very room while several other people survive their own lethal feeding becoming Turned Vampires themselves, RP start in the underground room with whoever all I accept and go from there'.

You can absolutely have the criminal empire torn about by a shadow war between Vampires, but it's feeling probable enough that it's meant to connect to the OP that I'm questioning if I was clear and so noting it.

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Ah, it seems I misinterpreted that part of the OP. I read it more as "rapidly escalating shadow war" rather than an immediate slaughter in that room right then. I can edit the backstory so the Parisants just got swept up and kidnapped one day, since that seems to fit fits better.

 

[Terrabrand]

So in the rough 'default like Earth' picture, where would Seafang be? Not-Venice? Generally speaking, how big is the Church's presence in the city and Island as a whole?

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I'd be envisioning some vague 'off west coast of europe' type placement but on proper thought 'island in Mediterranean sea equivalent' is probably more logical for a trade hub so while I'm probably not going to try strongly for 'venice like' that's probably a workable general idea.

Church has... I'll say three or four major churches on the island, of the sort significant enough to feature an Angel and thus act as a de facto major hospital and Hunter base of operations. Smaller Church facilities that act more exclusively as places of worship and spiritual guidance can be found strewn organically about the island with no strict pattern as to distribution.

Each of the major Church centers has three to five Hunters stationed more or less permanently there, who prowl the streets looking for Vampires and signs of the Unholy otherwise. In normal times, in practice they tend to do a lot of watching major cargo loading and unloading and altruistically volunteering to help out people given the fact that the island isn't in any known active campaigning state against local Vampires or the like, but it's reasonable to assume from a layman's perspective that the Hunters are going to be more committed to actual act of hunting and very possibly reinforced in the near future after masses of people were kidnapped out of the blue in a manner that's going to tend to sound Unholy even without being one of the people kidnapped to see the Vampire and the necromancy involved. A couple dozen or so Templars can be assumed to work at each major Church, technically guarding the Angel and church premises but in practice spending most of their days cleaning, sorting Church records, making conversation with guests, and so on. (Angels do not, as a rule, benefit from mortal bodyguards in the sense of the Templars being better fighters than them, but those who volunteer for such duty are generally prepared to die for the cause, shielded from this being unreasonably suicidal by the life link to the Angel.)

Otherwise, I'm still going with this basic assumption I laid out for at least the moment;

Locals probably attend sermons or something weekly but it's definitely not legally mandated, most sailors are probably more prone to making offerings to probably not-actually-real sea spirit and what have you and other naval superstitions than to being pious, and the city is run more by mercantile interests than the Church. While the Church has enough of a foothold on the culture that reasonable proof of Unholy stuff likely provokes physical investigations, the day to day running of the city is probably done by some kind of formal council of merchants who probably pass plenty of policies that are not in violation of the Unholy ban but still inconvenience Church efforts due to prioritizing shipping and brisk business over making absolutely sure no undead are around

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EDIT: In regards to our more mundane skills, how skilled are you allowing us to be in that regard, at the start? And can we learn more mundane skills and improve on them as the game goes on?

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I'm not setting a hard limit on how skilled in any area you are- you can be The World's Best (Human) Chef or Fencer or Sailor or whatever and, if I'm sold on the sheet overall, that's fine. Obviously, I'm less likely to accept some sort of omni skilled renaissance man than an interesting character with an actual specific focus on having a like, area of skill that fits the backstory, but you can be however skilled sounds appropriate.

A big part of 'being a Vampire' is the ability to keep improving in the simple mundane manner of more practice, so assuming the RP doesn't die or drag too much, you'll definitely be able to learn more skills and/or improve on existing ones. Most likely there'll be time skips thrown in as the group achieves at least temporarily stable situations and makes more long haul schemes to facilitate a time to go 'and then you learned pottery or swordfighting or whatever'.

Apologies for the vague wording, I meant that he can make someone forget a long-term memory, e.g making someone forget their mother's name for 5 minutes.

I used the word suppress because it's temporary, and thus not really "forgetting" per se.

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Ah, that makes sense.

Ah, it seems I misinterpreted that part of the OP. I read it more as "rapidly escalating shadow war" rather than an immediate slaughter in that room right then. I can edit the backstory so the Parisants just got swept up and kidnapped one day, since that seems to fit fits better.

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That's fair, I kinda suspected there had been a miscommunication. And that sounds like an appropriate edit to the backstory.

 

[Terrabrand]

One last question though, if you don't mind. Generally speaking, how skilled is your average Hunter and/or Templar? Is a single such individual capable of going toe-to-toe with a Vampire?

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Templars are typically only somewhat exceptional individuals. They tend to push towards the bounds of real world human, but if they really break through into being superhuman they usually wind up a Hunter instead.

Comparing Hunters to Vampires is tricky- in general, Hunters grow faster than Vampires on average, but Vampires have a higher strict lower bound, where even the youngest Vampire tends to be stronger/faster/tougher/sharper of sense/faster of reflexes and on in even their weakest areas than any real world human, and with the potential to be thousands of years old due to not ever actually dying of old age, Vampires have a longer tail to grow into. Both Hunters and Vampires range from 'only somewhat superhuman' out to 'really, really ridiculously superhuman', where the most impressive examples are just as, if not more dangerous, than the might of Liches and Angels which exist at a relatively static level.

But one can reasonably say that the average Hunter can beat the average Vampire in a one on one fight, with the betting odds being the Vampire, especially if they are well fed and can go all out, but it depends on exactly how high on the scale each is, and of course any match up of abilities and fighting styles as well as what can be most easily summed up as simple luck, the question of who outmaneuvers who, where and when they fight, how prepared each is, and individual split second judgements etc. Hunters have, overall, the advantage in expendability, ironically, both strategically (because they age out but grow faster any given Hunter dying is relatively speaking noise since they would have grown old and died within a hundred years anyways, where a Vampire dying is them being gone, when they could last indefinitely if nothing happens) and tactically (because Hunters generally endeavor to fight with the benefit of an Angel life link and therefore are usually able to be revived if they actually die), but if a Vampire is well fed and prepared they will tend to win one on one relatively reliably against a Hunter that could be reasonably classed as their peer, however again because abilities of both vary so wildly either side in such a match up might be the underdog.

EDIT: What do Vampires look like? Corpse Pale, 'feel' off, but generally normal, that sort of thing?

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Generally speaking, corpse pale, pointy fangs, trend towards looking like young adults (because they stop physically aging and basically look as they did when they were turned, and a higher percentage turn one way or another young), and tend to be in possession of all their limbs and often less scarred than one might expect (because they automatically and generally fairly swiftly regenerate from almost any wound that doesn't kill them at a mere cost in blood, so if a Vampire is missing an arm or something this is almost always because they were injured recently and haven't managed to feed lately), and they yes 'feel off' which, from an in universe perspective is caused by them having Unholy auras- untrained humans just get a general sense of unease that they'll usually wind up rationalizing as being caused by specific features, circumstances, or events, but is just caused by the Unholy aura itself, with more powerful Unholy auras causing a greater degree of emotional discomfort. With training, or just naturally speaking for Vampires, both Holy and Unholy auras can be sensed without needing so much as line of sight within a range, allowing a variably precise tool for identifying the presence of local living and undead creatures nearby. (most can't effectively pick out a specific aura from among a crowd unless it's really overbearingly strong though, but usually a Hunter with line of sight on a Vampire will be able to fairly quickly put together that they are a Vampire in part by sensing the aura, and when actively hunting they tend to take advantage of this ability to sense to move generally, though not unerringly, towards any local Unholy creatures. Vampires usually learn with some practice to suppress their Unholy aura to an extent, such that even more powerful ones cannot generally be sensed by Hunters who are not roughly in the same room as them unless they're actively using big Unholy powers, though most find it easier to pick out an aura from something they are looking directly at even if auras can be sensed through walls.)

But yes, this is fairly generic 'vampire is a corpse pale person who you might notice pointed fangs on but cannot place as definitely inhuman just from visual inspection' as the baseline description. Some wind up developing powers or getting themselves gear or what have you that makes them more obviously Not Right at a glance, leading to things like shadows that dance with a life of their own or them being on fire or what have you, but the default is 'looks human, a bit too pale though and on closer inspection those are some pointy canines' from which individuals can deviate.

 

[always_confused]

More Information

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Thanks once more for the information.

I really hope I'm not being annoying, but I had just one last question. Do we start off with any equipment at all beyond some basic clothes (if even that much)?

 

[Terrabrand]

Thanks once more for the information.

I really hope I'm not being annoying, but I had just one last question. Do we start off with any equipment at all beyond some basic clothes (if even that much)?

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You can have anything that would normally be on one's person and not easily dropped- you were kidnapped by a Vampire who rather reasonably did not think anything like knives or medicine or ropes or whatever all was a real threat to him or his legions of undead, and therefore did not specifically make efforts to strip any type of equipment that wasn't obviously Holy from any given victim. (stuff like Holy Water and holy power enhanced knives and more exists, and is a more significant threat from a Vampire's perspective in general).

It's arguably hubris, of course, but then the kidnapper did get himself killed which suggests his plans were not the most sound. But essentially, you're not going to have anything that would have naturally dropped off if carried limply through the dark, but anything in pockets or worn or the like can be reasonably held on to.

And it's fine, I'm not annoyed by being asked questions.

 

[Grand Cogitator]

This RP looks really cool! I have an idea, but I'd like to run it by you, @Terrabrand, before I go too far.

Would it be acceptable to play as a complete moron of a vampire, but one with the special ability of ridiculous luck that allows them to survive the consequences of his monumental screwups? Not that he'd get off scott-free, just that the only reason that he hasn't gotten himself killed yet is because he's already undead.

 

[Terrabrand]

This RP looks really cool! I have an idea, but I'd like to run it by you, @Terrabrand, before I go too far.

Would it be acceptable to play as a complete moron of a vampire, but one with the special ability of ridiculous luck that allows them to survive the consequences of his monumental screwups? Not that he'd get off scott-free, just that the only reason that he hasn't gotten himself killed yet is because he's already undead.

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Well, in the first place you're all freshly turned so the reason you haven't died yet is 'you were human until minutes ago at time of start', but as to the idea...

I'm gonna have to go with no. The idea could be an amusing concept in a purely or primarily humorous RP, but while I'm not going to say this is going to be a bleak and humorless land of pain and death, cause that's just not likely, my own baseline angle here is reasonably serious and the submissions so far have been reasonably towards the dark and serious in the first place- we have two different Is A Hardened Criminal sign ups, for example.

In that context, that sounds like a miserable slog to GM, being expected to, essentially, bail out a character practically trying to get themselves killed. I'd rather not have to deal with having to contrive reasons for walking straight up to Hunters or attacking Angels or whatever to be eminently survivable by chance.

Also, your one power is kinda supposed to be something to make the character more interesting, in principle. The powers submitted thus far actually allow one to actively do things, either by being a strictly voluntary effect (memory wiping, healing undead, etc) that can be leveraged intelligently, or by inherently getting actionable information by the power triggering (ye fantasy spider sense we have a submission that amounts to). A Vampire with the power 'to be lucky' is... well, it wouldn't be literally true but something that resembles such would be technically possible, but, in practice, leads to a character who probably pans out to plainer than the other submissions. It doesn't really interact with strategic planning, it can't be leveraged as a tool tactically, it just bails them out, entirely outside their actual intentional decisions.

This isn't even an intrinsic property of being passive- something like hyper regeneration is itself passive but opens up specific strategies, like speed run esque Taking Damage To Save Time where you do things like charge straight through arrow fire to reach the archers faster or let the enemy lop off an arm to catch them by surprise as you regenerate it. But what specific measures does one take to maximize value of luck? What tools does one seek, or strategies does one employ? There's... not really anything I'm thinking of there. It doesn't help take advantage of preparations or anything.

So, like I said. I'm gonna have to go with no for the reasons I've now laid out.

 

[Grand Cogitator]

Well, in the first place you're all freshly turned so the reason you haven't died yet is 'you were human until minutes ago at time of start', but as to the idea...

I'm gonna have to go with no. The idea could be an amusing concept in a purely or primarily humorous RP, but while I'm not going to say this is going to be a bleak and humorless land of pain and death, cause that's just not likely, my own baseline angle here is reasonably serious and the submissions so far have been reasonably towards the dark and serious in the first place- we have two different Is A Hardened Criminal sign ups, for example.

In that context, that sounds like a miserable slog to GM, being expected to, essentially, bail out a character practically trying to get themselves killed. I'd rather not have to deal with having to contrive reasons for walking straight up to Hunters or attacking Angels or whatever to be eminently survivable by chance.

Also, your one power is kinda supposed to be something to make the character more interesting, in principle. The powers submitted thus far actually allow one to actively do things, either by being a strictly voluntary effect (memory wiping, healing undead, etc) that can be leveraged intelligently, or by inherently getting actionable information by the power triggering (ye fantasy spider sense we have a submission that amounts to). A Vampire with the power 'to be lucky' is... well, it wouldn't be literally true but something that resembles such would be technically possible, but, in practice, leads to a character who probably pans out to plainer than the other submissions. It doesn't really interact with strategic planning, it can't be leveraged as a tool tactically, it just bails them out, entirely outside their actual intentional decisions.

This isn't even an intrinsic property of being passive- something like hyper regeneration is itself passive but opens up specific strategies, like speed run esque Taking Damage To Save Time where you do things like charge straight through arrow fire to reach the archers faster or let the enemy lop off an arm to catch them by surprise as you regenerate it. But what specific measures does one take to maximize value of luck? What tools does one seek, or strategies does one employ? There's... not really anything I'm thinking of there. It doesn't help take advantage of preparations or anything.

So, like I said. I'm gonna have to go with no for the reasons I've now laid out.

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Completely understandable, thank you. I have a few more ideas that I can fall back on, but my basic concept of playing as a humorously inept vampire can still work, right?

 

[Azrael]

Completely understandable, thank you. I have a few more ideas that I can fall back on, but my basic concept of playing as a humorously inept vampire can still work, right?

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Speaking as a fellow prospective player, while I wouldn't outright deny the potential of that concept, I will note it will be a very tight balancing act between being humorous and being actively detrimental in a way that impairs enjoyment of the game.

As Terrabrand has said, the tone of this RP isn't in your favor, so part of being 'humorously inept' is being inept, which might quickly lead to the other characters cutting ties with the liability before he gets them killed. Preferably by having him either run off obviously and lead the Church away or by dying in such a manner that after a brief sweep they think the undead threat is gone.

 

[Grand Cogitator]

Speaking as a fellow prospective player, while I wouldn't outright deny the potential of that concept, I will note it will be a very tight balancing act between being humorous and being actively detrimental in a way that impairs enjoyment of the game.

As Terrabrand has said, the tone of this RP isn't in your favor, so part of being 'humorously inept' is being inept, which might quickly lead to the other characters cutting ties with the liability before he gets them killed. Preferably by having him either run off obviously and lead the Church away or by dying in such a manner that after a brief sweep they think the undead threat is gone.

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I see.

Thanks very much for your advice! I have a few more ideas that I think will work a lot better with this RP.

 

[Azrael]

On a different topic, there are two skills that in my opinion would be really useful to have in the group that we do not currently have.

The first is Necromancy. It would be incredibly useful to be able to salvage what soulstuff and zombies and such remain in the room we start in, and get a headstart towards building up a force we can use, whether to delay Hunters while we book it or in an attempt to conquer the island.

The second is significant investment in Earth Elementalism. Since Vampires don't get tired, only expend blood, and don't need to breathe, someone with mining experience or something could dig a tunnel and seal it behind us, then we could travel around nearly undetectable. If we went deep enough we could even make it across the water, assuming relatively shallow sea nearby so we don't go deep enough that heat might damage us.

Biggest problem would be supplying blood, but if we use it for significantly less ambitious purposes than that last suggestion we still have a hidden crypt we can retreat to.

Ever wonder where all those extensive cave systems Vampires lair in come from? This is where

 

[Terrabrand]

The first is Necromancy. It would be incredibly useful to be able to salvage what soulstuff and zombies and such remain in the room we start in, and get a headstart towards building up a force we can use, whether to delay Hunters while we book it or in an attempt to conquer the island.

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To be fair, one of the current submissions is a research specialist when the stated start is a Necromancer's lab.

 

[Azrael]

To be fair, one of the current submissions is a research specialist when the stated start is a Necromancer's lab.

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Fair. I also doubt Hunters are literally about to break down the door, so he'd have a bit to work with before we have to get out of dodge.

Its just given a big fight just went down I imagine not all the guy's texts and materials survived. Still, if all else fails someone of the mind to pursue Necromancy could probably figure out how to reap all the Soulstuff from the corpses and the zombies and see about figuring out ghost making even without extensive knowledge to go off of.


Preemptively, Catherine will not be that person

 

[Ru_]

It just occurs to me, but I think it would be a very funny concept to have a character who was a Necromancer planning to eventually become a Lich, now absolutely livid that they're stuck as a vampire and won't be able to actually make it to that goal anymore. And sure, they're still immortal and will get a bunch of cool powers, but that's a consolation prize at best.

 

[Terrabrand]

It just occurs to me, but I think it would be a very funny concept to have a character who was a Necromancer planning to eventually become a Lich, now absolutely livid that they're stuck as a vampire and won't be able to actually make it to that goal anymore. And sure, they're still immortal and will get a bunch of cool powers, but that's a consolation prize at best.

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Given that any Necromancer with a serious shot at Lichdom could realistically expect to have made themselves a Vampire had they so desired, that would be an entirely plausible reaction to the outcome.

 

[Zaealix]

...Part of me wants to suggest a Trueborn Vampire concept (I have three already and potentially more pending) but I don't know if I'm actually up for another Role-Play at the moment, tempting though this setting is...
I'll give a vague discription:
1. Angry Minor noble lady
2. Tragic Turned Young Daughter (TTYD ).
3. Wannabe citizen hero in over his head.

Hopefully, that will help out anyone needing ideas?